bus 4-13
by Alvar Korenwolf
Summary: Trolls and Humans kill each other on sight, it remains a miracle that an all out war hasn't occurred yet. Both societies thrive, keeping a fragile equilibrium. An impasse is the best way to describe their relationship. But this is the real world and miracles don't exist, you can't go up without going down and the stalemate is nothing but a beautiful lie. At least that's what sever
1. Chapter 1:vomit

A dark clad figure crouches in the darkness. The place had grown accustomed to its presence, made it as if the trash cans, the dark walls, the filth and the figure were all part of the same alley. The figure shifts and huddles deeper in the shadows when someone passes. Face hidden so deep in a black hood not even the pale glint of eyes is visible. Another person passes, his grey skin a little paler than those who had preceded him, two horns rather than one and swaying on his feet, the last not entirely unexpected in this part of the city. He looks like the posterboy for everything the higher ups think of the Lower Ring. High on some illegal substance, vomit on his shirt, and a smell that suggest that it is has been there for quite some time, in dire need of a decent haircut and wasting his life away in shady bars. He stumbles past and takes a sharp left, nearly hitting his head on a wall. The figure moves, follows his shadow, becomes his shadow. He goes up some stairs on all fours, falling down every other step and leaving a faint yellow trail. The figure follows without disturbing the blood trail once he's all the way up. He's still fumbling with his door when the figure catches up again, it waits unmoving as he tries to punch in the correct code. When he finally does the figure lunges forward, grabs him by his neck and practically throws the two of them inside.

Sollux lies on his stomach wondering where today went wrong. It had started just like any other day, he'd woken up at noon with the urge to vomit and a horrible headache. The pain had passed by four am and he'd eaten. He'd checked his mail to only to see that he didn't have any new job requests. Not that he needed it right away, his last job had paid quite well. He'd checked his bank account to see that he had gotten the last deposit for the job he finished two days ago and had gone to spend that in one of the bars on the Lower Ring. He couldn't find a single thing different with any other day and yet here he was, face pressed against the floor, a hand on his neck assuring his face stayed there and a knee below his shoulder blades to keep the rest of his body down. He feels the weight on his back shift as the figure leans forward.

"well now mister captor, is it safe to assume that you will cooperate with me?"

The voice is a mere whisper next to his ear, he guesses it's a girl. The urge to laugh wells up, why would he cooperate, he hadn't even fought back yet. He plants his hands firmly on the ground and rolls to the left, taking the girl with him. She hits the wall with a hard thud but doesn't let go of his neck. Her other hand grabs a hold of his throat and he's forced on his back. The his neck feels sore already. His glasses got knocked off when she threw him inside and he feels them bite in the back of his head, he cringes slightly when he hears the distinct crunch of breaking glass. A knife being held close to his left eye makes him push his head further in the broken glass involuntarily. He looks up and sees her stare at him with a smug smile on her lips. She glares down on him and all Sollux can do is stare back. Her hood had come down during their struggle and he was looking at sickeningly pale skin. He was being held down by a human.

"Well at least you have stopped fighting. I will make this short for both our benefits. You use some drug that messes with your system, it severely pales the colour of your hands, nose, ears and other extremities and pales your skin overall after long usage. I'm guessing it's illegal by how hard you try to hide it, which means that you can't exactly run to the officials. It does mean however that you posses gray body paint, something that I could really use at this point."

Sollux continues to stare. There's a human in his apartment and she's asking for body paint? Where, oh where, did today go wrong? The knife glides over his skin, coming closer to his eye, he can feel the warm blood trickle over his cheek. He tries to hunch back even further, the back of his head protests heavily as more glass bites in his skin. He nods and immediately feels the pressure on his throat lift a bit. Before he can make use of his regained freedom however, she ties his hands together. She looks around quickly and pulls him up. He follows and watches her tie the other end of the rope, is that a scarf?, to his heating. The scarf gives enough for him to sit down on his couch.

"Where is it?" She asks, her voice is still a mere whisper as if she's afraid his neighbours might hear.  
"Bathroom, top shelve." Sollux says, his current condition in combination with a lisp making the last word nearly unintelligible.

He pulls at the knot while she's away, but gives up when he notices that he's only making it tighter. He leans forward and rests his head on his knees, the want for the sweet oblivion of sleep becoming almost overwhelming. He notices too late that she has returned, something hard makes contact with the back of his head, and for a moment all he knows is pain. His body slumps sideways, his head hitting the heating with a loud clang.

-

Sollux wakes up from a restless sleep covered in sweat, that's what he gets for not sleeping in his cocoon. He stands up and nearly falls over, he's got a terrible headache and a dull throbbing all over his body. What the hell did he do last night? He limps to the bathroom. The mirror shows his body in all its battered glory, did he get beaten up last night? A familiar taste makes itself known in the back of his mouth, he really should stay away from that stuff. He sighs when he gently feels the back of his head, he's gonna need help with that. A loud beep drags him back to reality, he grabs his laptop and sits back on the couch. Every part of his body seems to ache.

**AA: S0llux y0u said y0u w0uld fix my keyb0ard t0day**  
**TA: ii know**  
**TA: ah 2hiit, that ba2terd me22ed wiith my keyboard two**  
**TA: ju2t briing iit over**  
**AA: 0k**  
**TA: and briing bandage2, ii'm gonna need 2ome help**  
**AA: anything seri0us**  
**TA: ii thiink ii got beaten up ye2terday, ii don't really remember**  
**TA: my head iis pretty banged up**  
**AA: give me half an h0ur**

He works on some codes while he waits. Well, he stares at his screen, not really thinking at all. He loses focus, everything becomes blurs. A moving blur enters his vision. Dark, disheveled hair, horns that curl back resting upon it and torn up clothes. The figure comes closer. A pretty face, eyes with a faint red glint to them, red lips in a disapproving frown.

"Sollux, what did you take?" She asks, as she inspects the cut on his face.  
"Aradia?" He manages to slur out.  
"You smell sweet," her angry expression becomes one of worry, "oh dear god, did you take mind honey?"  
"I don't know, could be."  
"You shouldn't take that stuff, I hear it's especially bad for psionics."

They fall back into silence as Aradia picks the glass out of the back of his head. He winces every time he hears a new shard fall on the plate she had put down next to him. The shards are covered in his blood, giving a disgusting yellow hue to the otherwise red and blue glass. It seems to take forever before she declares that she got them all. Her gentle fingers leave the back of his head and go to the large bruise on his face.  
"I'll get something for you to hold against that, all I can really do is try to prevent it from swelling up too much."  
She returns with a damp cloth and a little note. Pressing the first against his face.  
"What did you do Sollux?" She asks, giving him the note  
It's a small business card, a pink purrbeast-like creature and a purple squiddle on one side and a single line written on the other side.  
_**Thank you for your cooperation, I look forward to doing business with you again -TT**_  
"I have no idea and something tells me I'm better off not knowing. Give me your laptop, I'll fix it now."

-

Aradia left a long time ago, unlike him she actually had a legal job, as legal as jobs got in the Lower Ring anyway. Sollux is flipping the little card between his fingers, memorizing the two icons displayed upon it. He moves his laptop to his lap, quickly hooking it up to a separate keyboard. His fingers caress the the flat plate, a small white line on the otherwise black surface follows in his wake. It had cost him a lot to get his hands on a deck like this, though if he's honest his pride had been the biggest price, but watching the white lines light up on the smooth surface made it all worth it. He places the deck over the his laptop and quickly enters his password. The screen springs alive, buzzing slightly. The right half of his screen gives off a faint blue hue, the left a red one. The light becomes intenser, absorbs him until Sollux Captor is no more.

He's flying. Who is he? What is flying? He's falling. What is falling?

And he's Sollux Captor once again, but so much more. He checks his body, making sure all the modification he'd made were still clean. What is a body in this place? What is a body when you're part of something so much bigger?  
He forces his thoughts back to him, forces him to remember Sollux, to be Sollux, to not lose himself in the matrix. Maybe he should've waited until he'd healed before he looked for the origin of that card, or at least until his head wound had healed. He brings the image up, the pink purrbeast and the purple squiddle. The matrix forms itself around him, the images he sees are unclear. The world around him starts to resemble a net, black holes were some half assed safety measure tries to prevent him from calling up the data. He calls up the colour of the text and the initials on the other side of the card. Darkness falls over him, he drops everything but nothing happens, the darkness continues to be absolute. He really should've waited until his head wound had healed, what kind of rookie mistakes was he making? He's just about to run one of the hacks he'd installed when the darkness shifts.  
**Hello Sollux, how nic of you to join us.**  
***nice**  
**lol, wat a graet first impression amirite?**  
He runs the hack. A wave of nausea hits him as his consciousness is roughly thrown back into his body. He pushes the laptop of his knees and barely makes it to his toilet before he throws up. One arm and half his upper body hanging over his toilet he dry heaves for a while. His knees have become numb when he finally moves again. He drags himself to his cocoon and crawls in. He's asleep the moment he closes his eyes.

* * *

oops completely forgot to upload this here  
let me know if you spot ooc-ness or other errors and I'll try to fix them


	2. Chapter 2:crazy women

Sollux wakes up feeling strangely aware of his surroundings, almost as if he's in the matrix. His eyes fly open and he stumbles out of his repuracoon, getting slime all over the floor. Frantically he tries the run an emergency hack. He doesn't calm down until he's assured himself that he hasn't gotten himself stuck in the matrix somehow.

Sunlight creeps through the one window in the room and he has to resist the urge to hiss at it. Then again, no one's here, might as well hiss. The air in the room feels rough and seems to carry a ghost image of all the objects in the room. He can almost feel every wire lying on the floor, it's as if the couch is pressing against his back, the bathroom is a void on his right arm. Inwardly cursing he slams his fist against the wall, he should've stayed away from that stuff. After he closes the blinds and lets darkness take the room, he sits down in the slime he's spilled around his repuracoon, revelling in its coolness.

Stay inside and try to beat this or go outside and get himself a fix. No, those aren't options. Neither is a good option. They're no good. He can't stay here, he won't survive, he's certain he won't survive. Searching for some more mind honey is not an option either, no one's going to be active. Who the hell would run the risk of getting caught by swarming during the day? He would. Right now he would. He'd face culling for a fix.

He scrambles to his feet, checks the medicine cabinets, opens the mini fridge, goes through his clothes. At a certain point he starts throwing the wires around, gets his legs entangled somehow and falls over. The bruise on his face screams before it settles into a dull throbbing which echoes through his head, he imagines forgotten pieces of glass vibrating with the sound.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound continues despite all his wishes to make it stop.

Thump.

He's willing to offer half his soul for some sweet silence. Sweet sticky silence.

Thump. Thump.

OK, his entire soul, his first born, his horns, his psionic abilities, just dear god make it stop.

THUMP.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" He cringes.  
"You've really outdone yourself this time, haven't you?" The voice would be pleasant if its owner didn't insist on cackling all the time.

He grumbles a response, not really bothering to form words.

Oh god, she's laughing. She's laughing that awful sharp laugh of hers, please go back to cackling. Is his entire soul really not worth some respite? Is he really so worthless in his essence?

His visitor ignores his silent pleas and sits down across from him, avoiding the green slime on the floor. He doesn't bother to turn around or sit up yet and continues to lie face first on the floor.

"I want to ask you something about your recent visitor." She says, disregarding his impaired state completely.

His mind goes on alert, it's like she's just accidentally run a real life hack. He doesn't move, doesn't grace her with an answer and just continues to stare at the floor. What would an ex- legislacerator want with Aradia?

"Well now mister Captor don't be shy. I don't judge, not anymore at least." He can practically hear her grin. He rolls over and looks at her. She's sitting with her back against the wall, her legs sprayed loosely over the floor. A dragon-headed cane between them, strikingly white in contrast with her knee-length black boots. Her outfit is clearly a mockery of the legislacerator uniform with the teal skin-tight leggings -he still suspects them to be a bodysuit- and the slightly oversized, white human military styled jacket over it. The red belt prevents her form from being completely hidden. Her short black hair may be orderly compared to his but well-kept isn't exactly the right word to describe it either, her horns stick out from it, sharp and straight. Red lips seemed to be permanently set into a grin that holds the promise of sharp teeth behind it. Pointed red glasses hide her eyes, though he knows all too well what is behind them. Not for the first time he counts himself lucky never having met Terezi Pyrope while she was still a legislacerator.

"If you're quite done staring, I would like to hear a reply now. You wouldn't want old tendencies to play up." Her voice pierces through his thoughts.  
"Aradia is friends with a blue blood, you sure you're ready to mess with her?" He was expecting some witty retort, some proof of Aradia's guilt -whatever it is she supposedly did- anything but cold dismissal.  
"The burgundy blood is of little interest to me. No, I was referring to your late night guest. She smelled utterly delicious." She licks her lips.  
"Terezi, who the hell are you talking about? Aradia is literally the only person that ever comes here." God she's playing one of her stupid games again, he can understand why she's an ex-legislacerator.  
"Please don't use first names while under interrogation, you ruined it completely." All he wants is for her to stop laughing like that, the sound pierces through his ears, digs through his brain, laughs at the pain it causes. "What are you smiling about Sollux?"  
"Your laugh laughs." He mutters, not really caring about anything anymore.

She pulls herself up and looks down at him. "Sollux, would it kill you to play along?" she asks before falling in her role again. "I want to know about your delicious smelling guest, or perhaps I should say intruder instead." She crouches down in front of him and strokes the large bruise on his face. Stroking becomes pushing and he pulls back with a sharp hiss. She chuckles, "tell me what you know of your attacker Captor, confirm my suspicions."  
"I don't even recall leaving the bar. Hell, I barely remember entering it in the first place." He retorts, maybe if he laid very still the world would forget he existed.  
"Ah yes, I'd forgotten what mind honey does to a troll, psionics especially. Is the short respite really worth the risks?" She says softly, intertwining their fingers. His skin looks sickeningly pale compared to hers. "I've always wondered, does it affect your eyesight?" Her other hand ghosts across his face, follows the outlines of his eyes. She leans in closer, till there is but a breath between their faces.  
He can no longer see his entire reflecting in her red tinted glasses. Something wet touches his face and it takes him a moment to realize that she's licking him. He pulls back again and wonders how often he can move away from her before his back finally meets a wall.

As always she merely laughs at him. She takes of her glasses and he is suddenly reminded of the fact that his are in the trash, reduced to a pile of broken glass and twisted metal. Her fingers trace the scars around her eyes. Two red orbs, literally two red molten eyes, mirror his own. His one blue eye is a dark spot on the uneven red surface while his red eye is all but lost in them.  
"Clearly my eyes are fine since I don't have to go around licking things to see." He says, it somehow feels like he's insulting her. She'd moved in about a year ago and he'd soon found out –she'd told him straight out- that she'd been excused from service after she lost her eyesight in an accident and here he was, setting up his own destruction as if in mockery of her own involuntary demise. Not that he cared what she thought of course, it was merely that Terezi could be quite scary at times and he'd rather not awaken her wrath in his current state. At least she didn't know the full extent of the damage he'd done, or the real danger of what he was doing to himself.  
Was it worth it?

Hell yes.

Hell.

Fucking.

Yes.

The mind honey dulled his senses, dulled the world, gave him the sweet respite he so desperately craved.  
And it was taking away the one thing he still lived for.  
Guess that meant he wouldn't be living that much longer after all.

He looked at her, she'd sense the movement, guess where he was looking, somehow she'd just know he was looking right into her mutilated eyes, sometimes it was as if she wasn't even blind at all. "It's worth it." He says, not willing to tell her too much about it. Terezi had a way of knowing things. She'd known he was a sweet tooth the moment they met. She knew of his affiliation with bus 6-13 even though he'd left them to their devices two years prior, around the time he stopped being a stupid teen with wild idealistic ideas to change society and became a bitter adult struggling to keep himself alive.

"Well try to tell me something about her." Why did she suddenly sound so triumphant? "Or maybe your guest can introduce herself?" She continues, directing her attention to the door.  
Sollux follows her gaze –why is she even looking, she's blind. Only the dark silhouette of the figure, outlined by the light from the hallway, is visible. He has to resist the urge to hiss at the light again.

The figure in the doorway takes Terezi's question as an invitation to come in and makes herself comfortable on his couch. Sollux can't help but let out a little sigh when the door shuts itself and cuts of the light. He'd followed the girl's every step to the couch, an easy feat since her simple pink shoes stand out between the black wires covering his floor, even in this darkness. Her legs are covered by black stockings and a simple pink miniskirt, maybe Terezi had started some sort of trend: crazy women that enter Sollux' home must show off their legs. Her entire attire is simple, but he can't help but stare at her black hoodie, more specifically at the pink purrbeast depicted upon it.

"You're really impolite, you know that?" She finally says. "Guess I'm not the only one that makes bad first impressions. Really now, leaving when we were just getting to know each other. I mean you'd almost think I was an imperial droid and you an unfortunate single troll trying to avoid certain culling. Certain because that troll has absolutely nowhere to run. There's no escape. He's doomed."  
"TG?" He asks in an attempt to shut her up, linking the pink text he'd seen in the matrix to the business card Aradia had found. He's completely ignored however when Terezi decides to make herself known by sniffing the girl on his couch.  
"You taste like red cherries, alcohol, "there's a little pause, "and utterly human."

There's a laugh –people really need to stop laughing- and the girl takes of her hood to reveal pale, white skin and short blond hair. Her hair looks a bit like Terezi's, maybe a bit curlier, and Sollux is beginning to wonder if all this is really a coincidence.

"Well TZ, there's your interesting guest. Why don't you take her out of my hive and into yours so that I can get some rest." The thumping had returned.

"Hm, Rose really went overboard, didn't she?" The human says, ignoring him while gently stroking the bruise in his face. She was like some sort of human Terezi, was she going to lick him next?  
"And who's Rose?" He snaps, all he wants to do is get a fix. He's not in the mood for any of this.  
"Really now where are that girl's manners, I raised her better than that. Beating someone up without leaving a name, the nerve of that girl." It was hard to figure out if she was being sincere or not. "I'm not doing much better, now am I? My name is Roxy Lalonde, the elder of the Lalonde sisters." Roxy looks at them expectantly and then sighs, muttering something about fame not crossing the border.

"Well all of this is very interesting but I still think you should continue this conversation in TZ's hive." Sollux says. How much time had passed, would people be swarming yet?

"Oh, but we can't have that. My sister and I have use for you Sollux Captor," she redirects her attention to Terezi, "and if your operation doesn't need an ex-legislacerator then you're running the wrong kind of operation." Her voice is soft, almost soothing to his ears.  
"And what kind of operation are we talking about here?" Terezi asks. Wait, she can't possibly be interested. This is a human we're talking about.

There is a human in his hive.

A living human.

The proverbial troll isn't going to get killed because he couldn't give genetic material, no, he's going down because he was hiding humans in his hive.

"A very fun one, both rebellious and just. Fun for the whole family and all that." Her voice is pleasant to listen to, and very easy to focus on. "My sister and I thought it would be fun to take down Her Imperious Condescension."  
"I can see the rebellious side of that, how is it just?" Holly shit, Terezi is really considering this.  
"It's just because I have reason to believe that The Condence is also the one in charge in the human society." Her voice loses some of its softness. "But will you look at the time. I'm afraid I must leave. Places to be, things to see, certain death if I'm found out to avoid." She stands up and starts making her way to the door, perhaps a little slower than necessary, Sollux is already dreading the moment the door opens and lets in the murderous fluorecent light.  
"And all this is supposed to convince us?" Terezi asks, following her.  
"It's only natural to be weary of us, but perhaps some of Sollux' old friends might be able to convince you to join our cause." Roxy answers, "I'll be in contact, I believe Sollux already has my chumhandle."  
She walks out without giving either of them time to respond. Sollux cringes at the light coming from the hallway, actually hissing at it this time.

It's not long before Terezi's foot is taping on the floor, almost in time with the thumping in his head. Almost but not quite.

Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump.

"I don't know who she meant, Aradia really is my only friend." Sollux says eventually.  
"We both now that is a lie, or did you forget about your accomplices during your angsty teen years?"  
She meant for him to take bus 6-12 again. Fuck.  
"Sorry TZ, the whole just rebellion thing isn't really my thing. I'm not driving down to that part of town again." There's an edge to his voice, implying other reasons for leaving than growing up. "I'm pretty sure KK is still part of it, if he hasn't been culled yet, I'll give you his trollianhandle but then you're on your own."  
"Sollux don't be an idiot and contact him yourself." She picks up his laptop. "Oh look what's this? Is this your laptop?" The amount of sass in her voice is almost overwhelming as she hands it to him. "I even opened trollian for you now contact him."  
Sollux sighs in defeat, if he hadn't been suffering from some weird withdrawal symptoms he might have looked forward to the conversation, but now he merely cringed at the idea of all that angry grey text that was about to flood his screen.

- twinArmageddons [CG] -

TA: hey KK we need two talk  
CG: OH LOOK IF IT ISN'T SOLLUX CAPTOR HONORING US WITH HIS PRESENCE AFTER THREE FUCKING YEARS  
CG: AND DOES HE SAY SORRY? DOES HE OFFER AN EXPLANATION FOR HIS SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OTHER THAN BEING A NOOKSNIFFING COWARD  
CG: THE HOLY GRUB FORBID HE ASKS IF EVERYONE IS OK  
CG: I'M FINE BY THE WAY  
CG: HAVEN'T BEEN FUCKING CULLED YET  
TA: hey kk here2 and iidea why don't you 2hut the fuck up  
CG: I'M SORRY, WAS I SUPPOSED TO BE GRATEFUL THAT A LITTLE GRUBFISTED SHITHOLE DECIDED TO TALK TO ME. I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY THAT YOU FOUND TIME FOR ME IN YOUR BUSY SCHEDULE AFTER THREE FUCKING YEARS  
CG: THREE WHOLE YEARS YOU ASSWIPE  
CG: WHAT DO YOU WANT  
TA: ii wa2 told to contact you  
CG: SOMEONE HAD TO FUCKING TELL YOU TO CONTACT ME? YOU COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT OUT OF YOUR OWN VOLITION?  
TA: 2hut up KK, ii2 there a rebelliion going on?  
CG: YES  
CG: OH DEAR GOD, THEY ASKED YOU?  
TA: a2ked? Told by 2ome creepy human ii2 more liike iit and now my 2tupiid neiighbour iin2ii2t2 that ii do what ii'm told  
CG: HAHAHAHA  
CG: DIDN'T YOU LEAVE BECAUSE NO ONE WAS ALLOWED TO FUCKING TELL YOU WHAT TO DO  
TA: ye2 a22hole ju2t tell me where ii can get on  
CG: FUCK NO, HAVE FUN FINDING THE BUSSTOP BY YOURSELF DOUCHBAG

- carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA] -

That little shit.  
That annoying little shit hadn't changed one bit.

* * *

**A/N: **I suggest you read this on archive of our own, under the same name, since I figured out how to code the pesterlogs on there, I'll keep uploading all the chapters here too though (as long as I don't give up) so if you prefer reading it here, by all means please do


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